Tractatus Translatus

Legend has it that Damion Searls learnt Norwegian in order to translate Jon Fosse, whom he had read in German and identified as a genius. Searls’ translations of Fosse are, by all accounts, superb. So it is intriguing to learn that he has now translated Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, joining other post-centenary interpreters, Michael Beaney, a historian of early analytic philosophy, and Alexander Booth, a poet.

There are two classic translations of the Tractatus, one by Frank Ramsey, credited to C. K. Ogden—which is widely regarded as both heroic and flawed—the other by David Pears and Brian McGuinness. (The philosopher Kevin Klement helpfully built a side-by-side-by-side edition comparing them with the German original.)

Searls aims to outclass both, though his apology takes aim at Ogden first, leaving Pears and McGuiness to a footnote. Searls notes some points of alleged improvement over Ogden, though I think the scorecard is mixed. Consider:

Ogden (3.1): In the p…